Fig. 34. Ruined house on N. shore of Qum-darya, from WSW. Drawing from a photo by Mr. Chen.
Besides the drawing Fig. 34, made after a photograph by Mr. CHEN, I refer to the drawings by Dr. HEDIN in his popular narrative "Den vandrande sjön" pp. 95
—97.
As is the case with most ruins in Central Asia the surroundings of this one was also strewn with potsherds. They were of a well-burnt thick ware, in colour ranging from red-brown to blue-grey and grey. The sherds brought home come from rather large jars, most of them with a marked rim, Fig. 35 : I, 3, 6-8 and io.
The iron knife Pl. 25 : 12 was found in the house as well as the fragmentary signet ring Pl. 27: 9 (of bitumen?), two fragments of an iron cauldron, a rectangular piece of red-brown woollen material, the flat bottom of a large oval basket, and the rim of another basket, Pl. 18 : 7, probably of the same type as No. 37: 2. The heavy wooden "comb" Pl. 27: 12 is a weaving instrument, used to press down the threads. STEIN has found two similar specimens at Niya (Stein 1907, Pl. LXXIII and 1921, Pl. XXVIII), and he also refers to the fact that such an implement is seen in the hand of a weaving lady on a painting from Dandan-öilik (Stein 1907, Pl. LXIII). In Egypt they are said to appear from late Roman time and onwards (Petrie, LXV: 148) . The bone comb with long curved handle from the Minusinsk region (Teploukhov, Pl. 1: 71)1 might possibly be an instrument for the same pur-
1 A larger picture in L'Antropologie 39 (1929) p. 422.
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